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The longest-running albums on the UK's Official Chart

As Meat Loaf’s Bat Out Of Hell returns to the Official Albums Chart, we take a look at some albums that have clocked up some serious time.
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It’s the mark of a classic album if over the years it continues to sell, especially so if it spends a significant portion of its existence in the upper reaches of the chart.

The Top 100 will always have a portion of legacy releases dating back decades that are still being streamed or sold in significant quantities. Any artist would hope to release a set of songs that will resonate with generations.

Just last year, ABBA's landmark greatets hits collection Gold became the first album to ever spend 1,000 weeks inside the Top 100 of the Official Albums Chart. 

It's since been joined two other greatest hits collections; Bob Marley & The Wailers' Legend and, as of today (June 3) Queen's Greatest Hits.

MORE: All the Official Albums Chart Number 1s

First released in 1981, Queen's Greatest Hits peaked at Number 1 on the Official Albums Chart for four weeks and has now spent 1,000 weeks charting inside the Top 100.

Comprised of a series of inescapable hits from Queen's first decade-or-so, it features beloved tracks like Bohemian Rhapsody, Killer Queen and Somebody To Love. 

With this achievement, Queen now become the first British act to claim 1,000 weeks inside the Official Albums Chart Top 100 - you can find out more about this chart milestone here.

And now, let's discover the longest-running albums in UK chart history below:

The albums that spent the longest in the Official Albums Chart Top 40

  TITLE ARTIST WEEKS IN TOP 40
1 GOLD - GREATEST HITS ABBA 413
2 THE SOUND OF MUSIC ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK 346
3 RUMOURS FLEETWOOD MAC 321
4 GREATEST HITS QUEEN 320
5 SOUTH PACIFIC ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK 315
6 LEGEND BOB MARLEY & THE WAILERS 294
7 BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER SIMON & GARFUNKEL 279
8 DIVIDE ED SHEERAN 267
9 BAT OUT OF HELL MEAT LOAF 253
10 CURTAIN CALL - THE HITS EMINEM 246
11 X ED SHEERAN 240
12 TIME FLIES - 1994-2009 OASIS 226
13 GREATEST HITS SIMON & GARFUNKEL 222
14 THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON PINK FLOYD 216
15 WHAT'S THE STORY MORNING GLORY OASIS 194
16 DIAMONDS ELTON JOHN 190
17 DUA LIPA DUA LIPA 184
18 TUBULAR BELLS MIKE OLDFIELD 183
19 + ED SHEERAN 181
20 50 YEARS - DON'T STOP FLEETWOOD MAC 177

Numbers correct as of 03/06/2022

©2022 Official Charts Company. All rights reserved.

The albums that spent the longest in the Official Albums Chart Top 100

POS TITLE ARTIST 

WEEKS IN TOP 100
1 GOLD - GREATEST HITS ABBA 1048
2 LEGEND BOB MARLEY & THE WAILERS 1032
3 GREATEST HITS QUEEN 1000
4 RUMOURS FLEETWOOD MAC 943
5 NUMBER ONES MICHAEL JACKSON 550
6 THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON PINK FLOYD 545
7 WHAT'S THE STORY MORNING GLORY OASIS 543
8 BAT OUT OF HELL MEAT LOAF 530
9 CURTAIN CALL - THE HITS EMINEM 516
10 BACK TO BLACK AMY WINEHOUSE 468
11 GREATEST HITS FOO FIGHTERS 459
12 TIME FLIES - 1994-2009 OASIS 456
13 AM ARCTIC MONKEYS 455
14 + ED SHEERAN 440
15 DEFINITELY MAYBE OASIS 439
16 X ED SHEERAN 412
17 WHATEVER PEOPLE SAY I AM THAT'S WHAT I'M ARCTIC MONKEYS 394
18 NEVERMIND NIRVANA 393
19 IN THE LONELY HOUR SAM SMITH 390
20 THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION WHITNEY HOUSTON 386

 

Numbers correct as of 03/06/2022

©2022 Official Charts Company. All rights reserved.

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M

Matt

-2

Come on, ABBA!?!? Man wtf. You Brits sure can make some killer music, but y'all taste is, well, f*cked up if that's what is topping this list. I mean really.... Really....ABBA?

JW

Jon Walker

2

Wow! Another pretentious snot whining about other people's taste. Why does that bother you soo much is like you said, f*cked up.

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Bengy

2

Album charts were only a Top 20 in the early 60s, then a Top 40 by the late 60s.

So you are not comparing like with like. The Top 100 albums chart did not publish until the 1980s.

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Blank

1

In the early days, when some of the big soundtracks were hits, it was only a top 5.

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Blank

4

Worthy of a mention is The Buddy Holly Story, amassing 155 weeks in the top 20 before all but South Pacific was released and before West Side Story had it's 50th weeek. At one time, it was clearly the most charted artist album of all time and held that accolade for decades while the current top 20 above were catching up.

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Rob Parkinson

2

Not so sure that just listening to one track from an album should be counted towards an albums streaming figures? Surely the whole album needs to be listened to for it to count for a stream especially with individual tracks getting accounted for in the singles chart even if they are effected by acr. Doesn't seem too fair if a person listens to dancing queen then ABBA gold gets a stream? Surely just the track should gain a stream unless the whole album is listened to then it should Surely just be the album and the individual tracks shouldn't get any. Perhaps OCC should stipulate the actual rules more clearly being open and transparent

JW

Jon Walker

2

Yeah! Especially with an album like Queen Greatest Hits where "Bohemian Rhapsody" has something like 1.7 billion streams and another track ("Flash") on the same album has only 43 million streams. Wich means the whole album was streamed only 43 million times in total. Totally unfair.